1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing at least one conductor path on a substrate, and a component having at least one conductor path that is fabricated in accordance with such a method.
Although it is applicable for any conductor path, the present invention describes in detail both the basic problems associated with it in regards to a conductor path for the electrical connection of two electronic components, for example, for two passive components, which are used in a high frequency field. This requires conductor paths on the substrate that are able to provide an interference-free transmission in the high frequency field.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, undesirable parasitic interferences and electromagnetic losses occur due to interconnection contact of the conductor paths with the substrate. In addition, interferences of neighboring conductor paths can occur due to the respective couplings of the conductor paths with the substrate.
At low frequencies, the influence of the conductor paths on the component characteristics is only minimal, however, at higher frequencies, particularly in the high frequency field, the electromagnetic effects of the conductor paths on the performance of the component can no longer be ignored. In each integrated circuit, for example, active and passive components are interconnected via conductor paths, whereby the power dissipation of these conductor paths should be as minimal as possible, and the conductor paths should be integratable on a shared carrier substrate in a simple way. The dissipation sources can be divided into three categories: ohmic dissipation, dielectric dissipation, and losses due to electromagnetic emission. The development of substrate-integrated conductor paths with minimal losses is extremely important for the use of integrated circuits in the high frequency field that is based on silicon technology. In the high frequency field, the losses resulting from the coupling of the conductor paths with the substrate are of particular importance.
In conventional technology, various attempts to the reduce interference losses from substrate-integrated conductor paths have been made. For example, organic dielectric materials on the silicon substrate and organic or inorganic membranes below the conductor paths have been used to reduce coupling losses. It is known, for example, to construct a conductor path on a membrane, whereby the membrane is formed on the surface of the silicon substrate. According to the article, “Membrane-Supported CPW with Mounted Active Devices” by Wai Y. Liu, IEEE, MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, Vol. 11, No. 4, Apr. 2001, pages 167 et sqq., the construction of a membrane-supported conductor path is described. The printed circuit is thereby constructed by using a photolithographic process on this membrane film. With selective etching processes, a decoupling of the membrane from the carrier material is achieved to reduce the interferences and losses resulting from the coupling of the membrane with the substrate.
However, the disadvantage of this approach proved to be the fact that such a production method is extremely complicated, time-consuming and costly. Furthermore, another negative fact of this approach is that in addition to the fabrication of the membrane, a covering for the top-exposed conductor path must be provided to protect it from exterior influences.